Technology is evolving us, says Amber Case, as we become a screen-staring, button-clicking new version of homo sapiens. We now rely on “external brains” (cell phones and computers) to communicate, remember, even live out secondary lives. But will these machines ultimately connect or conquer us? Case offers surprising insight into our cyborg selves.

– Myspace
10,746 known sex offenders deleted since 2007

– Facebook
2,800 known sex offenders deleted since 2008

Perverted-Justice operates a site that targets groups and individuals it identifies as being involved in the pedophile activism community,[10] a site that provides information to abuse victims on their legal recourse,[11] a site that gives advice to children and teenagers on dealing with grooming on the internet,[12] and a site that targets organizations that Perverted-Justice believes allow pedophile activists to use their services.[13] The foundation also offers free online training to law enforcement officers[14] and has an intern program for college students.[15]

Crowd-sourced Video In-sync

One such technology sneak peek was a unique synchronization of crowd-sourced video. Nicholas Bryan, an Adobe Creative Technology Labs intern, showed the audience how he could use a series of video clips shot at a concert to create a documentary of the whole concert with just the single click of an Analyze button.

The clips were from a Taylor Swift concert in San Jose, California, and each video was from a different angle and a variety of cameras, from stage-mounted cameras to handheld cell-phone video clips. All video footage included some view of Taylor Swift’s on-stage performance.

“If all the clips are viewed sequentially,” said Bryan, “it’s easy to see that some of the clips overlap each other, but by varying amounts.”

There weren’t enough clips overlapping to create a multi-camera option for on-demand content playback, but there were enough to fill in large gaps in the concert.

Using a command-line interface, Bryan’s pre-alpha software tool analyzed each video, looking for salient points in the video that were either unique or matched those in at least one of the other videos. In addition, the tool used the audio waveforms to match audio patterns between as many clips as possible.

The end result was a timeline that used all the clips, with corresponding clips overlapping each other and aligned in a completely audio/video-synchronized timing. While the video quality varied from clip to clip, the end result could easily be a crowd-sourced end-to-end video recording of the entire concert, comprised of tens or hundreds of clips from dozens of concertgoers.

“We see this as a breakthrough to allow news events, concerts, and other public events to be documented in a way not easily possible,” said Bryan, “and certainly not possible with today’s current editing and on-demand video tools.”

I can remember many times that I took an important video or a picture and later found out it was blurry. Well, CS6 will probably have the new advanced algorithm that fixes blurred photos. In the video above, Adobe presented how they can correct your shaky video or crappy photo into a sharp and clean images. It can also be used to clean up text. It was like watching CSI but in real life. The audience loved the “sneak peek”. Rioters and criminals around the world should be worried. These digital forensic techniques coupled with a bunch of iPhones will get you ID’d. Privacy is dead with the panopticon effect.

Help Wanted: Busybodies With Cameras

The outsourcing of law enforcement has also been something of a boon for local governments. They say that they can save money on hiring officers, and that the fines imposed on offenders generally outstrip the rewards paid to informers. (The reward for reporting illegal garbage dumping: about $40. The fine: about 10 times as much.)

For most infractions, rewards can range from as little as about $5 (reporting a cigarette tosser) to as much as $850 (turning in an unlicensed seller of livestock). But there are possibilities for windfalls. Seoul’s city government promises up to $1.7 million for reports of major corruption involving its own staff members.